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"Most workflows can benefit from multiple monitors. it's a silly thing to be bottlenecked by screen area on a fancy computer when used 1080p monitors are nearly

by leugim 6y ago

"Most workflows can benefit from multiple monitors. it's a silly thing to be bottlenecked by screen area on a fancy computer when used 1080p monitors are nearly free in 2020." No. My productivity is much better with just one monitor.

zimpenfish 6y ago
Same, at least thus far. It always ends with annoyance caused by fighting over window management and task switching which hampers productivity.
- dkersten 6y ago
  I never understood why people struggle with window management, but then again, my primary setup is to use a tiling window manager where I either keep a single full screen window in a workspace or a very simple side by side split, or 1x2 split or 2x2 split as appropriate. Possibly one hovering window that I call up/hide on demand. And then I just keyboard shortcut between workspaces. For multi monitor, I dedicate some workspaces to each monitor (and occasionally move windows between then if needed, but it’s not so often). It’s easy to switch between workspaces because I dedicate them to specific tasks, eg 0 is messaging applications, 6 is my IDE, 7 is browser I use for development (dev tools open tiled beside the browser), 8 is terminals etc More monitors just mean some workspaces are switched between by moving my head instead of switching what’s on screen. For some tasks it’s easier for others it’s not. I do find a larger higher resolution monitor more useful than having two or three small ones, especially for my IDE where I have splits and such. I use a 34” 1440p currently but would love to go larger/higher resolution (but 4K at those sizes is out of my budget right now)
  - zimpenfish 6y ago
    > I either keep a single full screen window Pretty much what I do with my single screen. Probably down to being a contractor for a long time and never knowing from one day to the next if I even had a desk to sit at, never mind a monitor or two.
  - jon-wood 6y ago
    Since moving to Mac OS because of work I desperately miss XMonad, where workspaces and screens are separate concepts, and you can ask any screen to show any workspace and it’ll just resize appropriately.
    - stjohnswarts 6y ago
      There are tiling managers for OSX. None of them work as well as the ones for Linux but they're better than fumbling with a bunch of mousing around. Maybe try Divvy or Tiles.
  - wogong 6y ago
    Tiling window manager like i3 in multiple monitors environment is not that convenient as I thought. Most of the time I just use one monitor. Switching workspace between multiple monitors confuses me.
    - dkersten 6y ago
      I still like having multiple monitors even with i3, but a single large monitor is definitely more useful to me than multiple small ones, so given the choice I would choose a larger primary monitor before choosing a second or third monitor.
- MaulingMonkey 6y ago
  That's exactly the problem I solve with multiple monitors. I'd rather flick my eyes over to the browser window documenting function signatures, error cases, etc. than alt+tab through potentially several windows to find said docs window, then alt+tab ing back to my coding window to use said information. But apparently some people prefer to do that, than to spam a few win+arrow key combinations, to spread their windows out for initial setup.
  - alluro2 6y ago
    I suspect it has to do with number of windows required for your work. If it's a couple, I guess switching desktops/screens/windows via shortcut is equally or more efficient than separate screens. However, if I have ~10-12 windows I regularly need to switch between (2-3 related projects in the code editor, 2 browser windows - 1 browsing/docs, 1 the actual app I'm working on, terminal, db mgmt tool, Figma, Slack, email, Calc for some of the data, file manager), a tiling manager or multiple desktop on just one physical screen make things significantly harder for me...I might be missing something obvious in how it's supposed to be used.
nickthemagicman 6y ago
I use workspaces with one monitor. It's sort of best of both worlds.
asutekku 6y ago
Then you’re not in the “most”. GP did not say “All workflows”
- davidwparker 6y ago
  GP probably shouldn't have included it. It's hard to argue that even "most" do. Maybe "some" workflows.
- dominotw 6y ago
  same and how can so many people not be in "most"
natn 6y ago
Sort of agree, though I'd say more important the number of monitors is resolution. I find anything less 2560x1440 results in increased cognitive load for window management.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
-Most- implies for some people it won't be so. I don't think he meant it was true for everyone. Most of the engineers I know personally, and that's a lot, prefer two or more screens to work on.

by leugim 6y ago

zimpenfish 6y ago

Same, at least thus far. It always ends with annoyance caused by fighting over window management and task switching which hampers productivity.

dkersten 6y ago
I never understood why people struggle with window management, but then again, my primary setup is to use a tiling window manager where I either keep a single full screen window in a workspace or a very simple side by side split, or 1x2 split or 2x2 split as appropriate. Possibly one hovering window that I call up/hide on demand. And then I just keyboard shortcut between workspaces. For multi monitor, I dedicate some workspaces to each monitor (and occasionally move windows between then if needed, but it’s not so often). It’s easy to switch between workspaces because I dedicate them to specific tasks, eg 0 is messaging applications, 6 is my IDE, 7 is browser I use for development (dev tools open tiled beside the browser), 8 is terminals etc More monitors just mean some workspaces are switched between by moving my head instead of switching what’s on screen. For some tasks it’s easier for others it’s not. I do find a larger higher resolution monitor more useful than having two or three small ones, especially for my IDE where I have splits and such. I use a 34” 1440p currently but would love to go larger/higher resolution (but 4K at those sizes is out of my budget right now)
- zimpenfish 6y ago
  > I either keep a single full screen window Pretty much what I do with my single screen. Probably down to being a contractor for a long time and never knowing from one day to the next if I even had a desk to sit at, never mind a monitor or two.
- jon-wood 6y ago
  Since moving to Mac OS because of work I desperately miss XMonad, where workspaces and screens are separate concepts, and you can ask any screen to show any workspace and it’ll just resize appropriately.
  - stjohnswarts 6y ago
    There are tiling managers for OSX. None of them work as well as the ones for Linux but they're better than fumbling with a bunch of mousing around. Maybe try Divvy or Tiles.
- wogong 6y ago
  Tiling window manager like i3 in multiple monitors environment is not that convenient as I thought. Most of the time I just use one monitor. Switching workspace between multiple monitors confuses me.
  - dkersten 6y ago
    I still like having multiple monitors even with i3, but a single large monitor is definitely more useful to me than multiple small ones, so given the choice I would choose a larger primary monitor before choosing a second or third monitor.
MaulingMonkey 6y ago
That's exactly the problem I solve with multiple monitors. I'd rather flick my eyes over to the browser window documenting function signatures, error cases, etc. than alt+tab through potentially several windows to find said docs window, then alt+tab ing back to my coding window to use said information. But apparently some people prefer to do that, than to spam a few win+arrow key combinations, to spread their windows out for initial setup.
- alluro2 6y ago
  I suspect it has to do with number of windows required for your work. If it's a couple, I guess switching desktops/screens/windows via shortcut is equally or more efficient than separate screens. However, if I have ~10-12 windows I regularly need to switch between (2-3 related projects in the code editor, 2 browser windows - 1 browsing/docs, 1 the actual app I'm working on, terminal, db mgmt tool, Figma, Slack, email, Calc for some of the data, file manager), a tiling manager or multiple desktop on just one physical screen make things significantly harder for me...I might be missing something obvious in how it's supposed to be used.

nickthemagicman 6y ago

I use workspaces with one monitor. It's sort of best of both worlds.

asutekku 6y ago

Then you’re not in the “most”. GP did not say “All workflows”

davidwparker 6y ago
GP probably shouldn't have included it. It's hard to argue that even "most" do. Maybe "some" workflows.
dominotw 6y ago
same and how can so many people not be in "most"

natn 6y ago

Sort of agree, though I'd say more important the number of monitors is resolution. I find anything less 2560x1440 results in increased cognitive load for window management.

stjohnswarts 6y ago

-Most- implies for some people it won't be so. I don't think he meant it was true for everyone. Most of the engineers I know personally, and that's a lot, prefer two or more screens to work on.